eishiya reviewed Antique Medical Instruments by Elisabeth Bennion
Yep, it's Antique Medical Instruments
3 stars
Antique Medical Instruments is heavily illustrated with photos of medical instruments and related items from various collections, some in colour. Though it deals with instruments of the medieval era to the 1870s and mentions related tools from antiquity, most of the pictured objects are from the 1700s and 1800s, and the focus is on British instruments and developments. Though it's meant for collectors and its 1870 cut-off is chosen because the development of antisepsis around that time led to tools being made in simpler materials and plainer designs that are less interesting to collect, it's still a good book for writers and artists as reference for the tools of medical practice in that time and place.
The book is dominated by images, but the text is informative and provides context for the various tools both in terms of scientific developments and political ones, and makes note of those items which …
Antique Medical Instruments is heavily illustrated with photos of medical instruments and related items from various collections, some in colour. Though it deals with instruments of the medieval era to the 1870s and mentions related tools from antiquity, most of the pictured objects are from the 1700s and 1800s, and the focus is on British instruments and developments. Though it's meant for collectors and its 1870 cut-off is chosen because the development of antisepsis around that time led to tools being made in simpler materials and plainer designs that are less interesting to collect, it's still a good book for writers and artists as reference for the tools of medical practice in that time and place.
The book is dominated by images, but the text is informative and provides context for the various tools both in terms of scientific developments and political ones, and makes note of those items which are typical for their time and those which are not, though it doesn't go into much detail on the specific objects in the images. I'll definitely be coming back to this one, and the image credits should be useful in locating better photos of the instruments. The usage of many of the standard tools is not described and the included glossary is very brief, so you may want to have Wikipedia at hand if you're not already familiar with medical tools and operations.
One of the appendices is a list of British (and, much more briefly, European and North American) instrument makers from the late 17th to the early 20th centuries, showing the trade cards of some of the 18th century ones, it's a great resource if you like including details like that.
If this book were easier to get, I'd recommend it more strongly. I managed to find it for $11 and that was a great purchase! Unfortunately, most listings for used copies of it are more in the range of $50-$180, and at those prices, I feel it might be better to spend some time browsing the online offerings of institutions like the Wellcome Collection and the Hunterian Museum.